Nadezhda P. Kotnova

Nadezhda Kotnova was born in 1985 in Mytishchi, Moscow Region, where she completed music school in the class of teacher I. I. Ilchenko.

In 2000 she entered the Music College at the Schnittke Moscow State Institute of Music, studying with A. S. Strukov, O. Ch. Musorin, Yu. N. Yushina, V. V. Esakov and M. G. Maevskaya, and in 2004 she entered the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music to study with Associate Professor M. A. Drozdova, Professor T. V. Kandinskaya and lecturer N. V. Baskova.

After graduating from the Academy in 2009, Nadezhda Kotnova undertook postgraduate studies in collaborative piano at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music in the class of Professor Tatyana Vladimirovna Kandinskaya, which she completed in 2012.

From 2004 to 2009 she worked as accompanist at the Gnesin Music College in vocal classes, and from 2008 to 2014 as accompanist in the Department of Opera and Symphonic Conducting at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory within the course «Methods of Working on an Operatic Role» for singers.

From 2009 to 2012 Nadezhda Kotnova taught at the A. N. Scriabin Moscow Regional Basic Music College in Elektrostal, where she gave classes in collaborative piano and accompaniment.

From 2010 to 2015 she worked as accompanist and orchestral pianist in the opera studio of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, and in 2012–2013 she was accompanist at the Russian Opera Theatre.

Since 2015 Nadezhda Kotnova has been Senior Lecturer in the Department of Aesthetics, History and Theory of Culture at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), teaching the courses «Theory and History of Music» and «Theory and History of Music and Music in Animation».

Nadezhda Kotnova has taken part in competitions and festivals and has received the following awards:

• 1st prize at the International Yudina Chamber Ensemble Competition (Moscow, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, 2009);
• Participation in the three-day festival in memory of M. V. Yudina at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music in October 2009;
• 2nd prize and Special Prize of the Jury Chair G. S. Shirinskaya for the best performance of a work by D. D. Shostakovich at the 2nd International Shostakovich Chamber Ensemble Competition (Moscow, 2010);
• 2nd prize at the International Yudina Chamber Ensemble Competition (St Petersburg, 2011);
• Grand Prix at the International Chamber Ensemble Competition-Festival «Krasnodar Camerata»;
• Participation as accompanist in the International Festival-Competition «Musica classica» (Ruza) in November 2011 and April 2013.

She has served as accompanist at the competition «Jugend musiziert» («Young Musicians of Germany»):

• 2010: three rounds in Moscow (8 February 2010), Stockholm (19–23 March 2010) and Essen (28 May–3 June 2010) with flautist Katharina Krüger (1st prize in Stockholm and 2nd prize in Essen);
• 2012: three rounds in Moscow (9 February 2012), London (21–25 March 2012) and Stuttgart (24–28 May 2012) with flautist Charis Beckert (1st prize in London and 3rd prize in Germany);
• 2015: three rounds in Moscow (15 January 2015), Paris (21–25 March 2015) and Hamburg (May 2015) with flautist Charis Beckert (1st prize in Moscow and Paris).

She is also a 2nd prize laureate of the International Dmitry Bortniansky Vocal Ensemble Competition with soloists E. Dyadyanova and A. Sinitsyna (December 2012).

Nadezhda Kotnova maintains an active concert career as soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, appearing at many venues in Russia and abroad.[2][3]

Her stage partners have included:

• People’s Artist of the USSR, Bolshoi Theatre soloist A. F. Vedernikov (jubilee concerts in Kirov and Sovetsk in 2012, recital in Tarusa in 2013);
• Lyubov Kazarnovskaya (concerts in Moscow, including the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in December 2012, in various Russian cities such as Samara, Uglich and Norilsk, and abroad, including a concert during the Days of Russia in Cannes on 4 October 2011);
• Honoured Artist of the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania and soloist of the Novaya Opera Theatre Alexei Tatartintsev (concerts in Sarov, 2015);
• Olesya Petrova, soloist of the Mikhailovsky Theatre (St Petersburg) and the Metropolitan Opera (New York), 2nd prize winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition (from 2018 to the present);
• Honoured Artist of Russia and soloist of the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic Yana Ivanilova (2018);
• Honoured Artist of Russia and Bolshoi Theatre soloist Alexandra Durseneva (from 2020 to the present).

She has collaborated with conductors Igor Frolov, Alexander Barklyansky, Arif Dadashev, Azim Karimov and Ayrat Kashaev, and with instrumental soloists Alexander Barklyansky (violin), Sergei Poltavsky (viola), Evgeny Rumyantsev (cello), Veronika Kozhukharova (saxophone) and others.[2][1]

Since 2013 she has worked with cultural theorist and violinist Mikhail Kazinik in his concert and educational programmes.

Selected concerts:

• Participation in the composer T. Efimov’s recital at the House of Composers (20 April 2012), premiering a piano sonata and a song cycle to poems by Gumilev with soloist M. Sazhin;
• Concerts within the Days of Russia in Baku (June 2011);
• Concerts within the Days of Pushkin in India (Delhi, 6 June 2012; Kolkata, 7 June 2012);
• Performance at the «Bella» literary prize ceremony in Verona, Italy (May 2013).

Masterclasses and teaching projects:

• Masterclass at the A. N. Scriabin Moscow Regional Music College (Elektrostal) during a seminar-forum (20–25 November 2011) on «The Work of the Pianist-Accompanist on Operatic Repertoire: Tatiana’s Letter Scene from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”»;
• Masterclass at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music during a seminar-forum (May 2013) on «The Work of the Pianist-Accompanist on Schumann’s Song Cycle “Frauenliebe und -leben”»;
• Participation in the pedagogical programme «The International Certificate for Piano Artists» (ICPA) of Nelson Delle-Vigne Fabbri (solo piano) in Moscow in 2015 and 2017.

She is a member of the quartet STRADIVALENKI («StradiValenki»), where she is responsible for programme creation, arrangements, production and management.

As part of this ensemble she has been a semifinalist in the television project «4×4» on the Russia-Kultura channel and a finalist in the International Competition «National Collection» (St Petersburg), and has toured extensively in Russian philharmonic halls (St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Kazan, Ryazan, Samara, Tolyatti and others) and in concerts marking the Days of Russia in Vietnam, India, Hungary and other countries.

Discography:

• «StradiValenki. Classics with a Smile» (2014);
• Teodor Efimov, «Selected Works» (2018).

She is currently working on recordings of music by Kurt Weill with Bolshoi Theatre soloist Alexandra Durseneva and of works by Romanian composer Stefan Niculescu.

Video projects:

• Tchaikovsky’s «Children’s Album» for the educational project «Tchaikovsky and Moscow» of the Russian National Museum of Music (2020);
• Schumann’s song cycle «Dichterliebe» within the international conference «The Poet, Poetry, the Poetic» (VGIK, 2020);
• Author of the project «Russian Poetry of the First Half of the 20th Century in Music» (with VGIK professor and writer V. I. Mildon), which includes a film devoted to the music of A. A. Blok in settings by N. I. Peiko and D. D. Shostakovich.